The feeding of domestic pets, such as dogs and cats, can be a somewhat messy endeavor inasmuch as it is commonly undertaken by placing the animal's feeding dish or bowl on the floor in the pet owner's residence. Accordingly, solid food particles and/or liquids can find their way to the floor or on adjacent walls, furniture, etc. The use of trays, mats or other items placed under the animal's bowl may tend to reduce the problem, but does not eliminate it.
Various pet feeding devices have been disclosed in the patent literature, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,891 (Jones); U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,759 (Brown); U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,108 (Faeroe); U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,110 (Birnie); U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,806 (Watanable); U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,316 (Lillelund et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,210 (Lampe); U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,565 (Beshah); U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,428 (Gitzen); U.S. Pat. No. 7,017,518 (Zolnierz et al.) and 2008/190372A1 (Horvath). While those devices appear generally suitable for their intended purposes, they still leave something to be desired from the various standpoints of simplicity of construction, each of assembly and disassembly, cleanability, and functionality. Accordingly, a need exists for a device for holding a pet food bowl or dish to enable the animal to freely eat from the bowl or dish, while putting up a barrier to the egress onto adjacent surroundings, yet which can be readily disassembled for cleaning and then readily reassembled for renewed usage. The subject invention addresses that need.